PayPal president David Marcus moves to Facebook

Marcus will oversee the social network’s messaging products division, which includes Facebook’s Messenger app. The mobile app has more than 200 million users.

David Marcus, president of eBay Inc.’s PayPal division, plans to leave the payments company to join Facebook Inc. The move is effective June 27.

Marcus will oversee the social network’s messaging products division, including the Facebook Messenger app, which lets users send messages to their friends.

Marcus had been in his position at PayPal since April 2012. Prior to working for eBay, he was founder and CEO of Zong, a mobile payments provider for gaming and social networking companies that eBay acquired in August 2011.

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“As the head of PayPal, David helped make a great business better, reinvigorating product design and innovation and energizing the team to deliver compelling consumer experiences,” says John Donahoe, eBay’s president and CEO.

Making the move was a difficult decision, Marcus writes in a Facebook post. “After much deliberation, I decided now is the right time for me to move on to something that is closer to what I love to do every day,” he writes.

Facebook says it processes 12 billion messages daily and its Messenger smartphone app—which consumers can use independently of Facebook even though it is integrated with the social network—has more than 200 million users.

“We’re excited by the potential to continue developing great new messaging experiences that better serve the Facebook community and reach even more people and David will be leading these efforts,” says the social network in a release announcing the hiring.